Portals

by Amy Simone

  “Sure, ring them right up!” Bob scoffed.

  Cassie grabbed her phone back. “I think the Coach is our best shot.”

  “How d'you first meet him, Cassie?” Bob asked. “Try that.”

  “We’ll let you know.”

  She hung up, looked once at her cat and frowned, then put the small metal ball in her pocket again.

  “I will go next door.” She hurried back over to the barn office and typed furiously on the keyboard. Bruce joined her.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I’m going to some sites I was on the first time I met the Coach. Plus, the Coach kept reminding me it was my dad… As the helicopter went down the day he died—that it was my dad’s dying wish they help me. If we don’t help Bob, he might not make it.”

  She pulled up all her old Internet sales sites. Their images haunted her. Instantly Bob’s computer screen was full of an array of dresses or shoes—it seemed to be one unending scroll. Her stomach churned. All that stuff was what she used to buy. Nonstop. She was compulsively spending. For a moment, the pull got to her, much like an alcoholic in a bar or wine store. If only she could get that blue dress or those Louboutin shoes—she knew how to turn them around and make a profit on them. Just as quickly she quashed the thought.

  Bruce pulled up a chair next to her. “I really don’t follow you. The Coach came to you when you were looking at this crap? At least I was lying there dying.”

  “My husband divorced me over this.” She turned and looked at him. “I was driving us into bankruptcy. Now I have a question for you—why don’t you have a direct line to the Coach, anyway? Seeing you are from the other side and all.”

  “He’s hit or miss with me too. Says he’s busy all the time.”

  They both sighed. Cassie kept typing, pretending she was shopping for inventory, just like the old days. Reflecting for a moment, she realized how much her life had changed in a few short months.

  “C’mon, show up,” Bruce muttered. A small glint of light showed near the office entrance. They’d left the door open.

  “Look!” Bruce gripped her shoulder. She stopped typing. But what followed that was not what they hoped would happen.

  46

  Tired and True

  The Coach materialized before them all right but he was a mess. They had torn his normally brilliant white robe. It was tattered and dirty. Part of his beard was missing, and he stood half stooped as though in great pain.

  “What happened to you?” Cassie gasped.

  “My girl, they tore me up after you left.”

  Bruce leapt forward to help him to the sofa. “Sir, this is no good.”

  “I tried to explain to them I had nothing to do with that darn witch. I even offered to show them the replay. We keep all the records, you know…” His hands shook in his lap.

  Cassie scooted closer to him and took his hands in hers and tried to warm him up.

  “Get a blanket from the cabin,” she told Bruce.

  “No, no that does nothing,” the Coach told them. “I’m not real flesh and blood.”

  “Could have fooled me,” Cassie said, squeezing his hands. “Eating all that fruit all the time.”

  The old man said nothing but looked at the floor. Finally he muttered, “a dalliance.”

  “What can we do for you?” Bruce asked. He hovered nearby, standing over the coach, clasping him on his shoulder.

  The Coach looked up at them imploringly. “I know I look like a vagabond.”

  “I wasn’t going to say anything…” Cassie had to nod. He looked worked over.

  “Why am I here?” the Coach asked. “I should be back in my office.”

  “It’s Bob. Something or someone trapped him in this…” Cassie reached into her pocket and pulled out the black sphere.

  The Coach’s eyes widened. He took the tiny ball from her and peered at it up close.

  “A sealant,” he said finally.

  “A sealant?” Bruce repeated.

  “Yes, that’s they do when a particular force doesn’t want another force to proceed.”

  “How do we change it?” Cassie asked.

  “He’s still alive?” the Coach asked.

  “Yes. We can call him in there.”

  “Phones are a marvelous thing,” said the Coach. He rested up against the back of the couch. His face looked weary. He started to hand the bead back to Cassie.

  “No. We need your help.”

  The Coach’s eyes closed as if he would sleep.

  “Wait!” Cassie urged. She poked his thigh. “Wake up!”

  “I’m thinking, girl.”

  Respectfully, Cassie and Bruce paused, then watched as the Coach closed his eyes fully and took a series of deep breaths. They nervously looked at one another. Cassie eyed the black marble in his hand just to make sure he didn’t drop it.

  Several minutes passed. Cassie looked once more at Bruce who shrugged. The Coach had gone into a trance.

  The little bead finally vibrated and then wiggled.

  It rolled back and forth with the small confines of the palm of his hand.

  “Looks like something is happening at last,” Bruce whispered.

  Finally, after what seemed an eternity, there was a bright red light that filled the room, then a small blast and Bob popped into the room. Two neatly halved pieces of the metallic bead popped up and down on the wood floor like Mexican jumping beans. The Coach opened his eyes.

  “Stop that racket. Step on those blasted things, would you?” he asked Bruce.

  Bruce did just that with one of his massive boots.

  “Are you all right, Bob?” It was Cassie who spoke first to him.

  Bob stood resting against the edge of his desk, rubbing his eyes. Even the dim light in his office was too much for him at that moment.

  The Coach had changed, though. He looked to be his previous self—clean and neat plus composed.

  He cleared his throat. “Where were we?” he asked.

  Cassie hugged him. He felt like a piece of thickened warmed air to her arms but she didn’t care.

  “How’d you manage that?” Bruce asked him, “in case I ever want to do something like that.”

  “My boy, that takes years upon years to perfect. I called in a lot of favors for that,” their mentor admitted.

  Bob now spoke. “I don‘t ever want to go through that again.”

  “Nobody does,” the Coach agreed. “But you survived. Many don’t.”

  “Please don’t tell me this is all stemmed from what happened in Florida,” Cassie begged.

  “No. All of your paths began much further back than that,” the Coach admitted. “I’m not needed here any further, though. Not for now, anyway.” He faded.

  “How can we find you if we need you?” Cassie asked.

  “You’ll find a way,” was all he said. Then he was gone.

  The three of them stared at each other.

  Bruce tapped his friend on the back. “Man, that was intense, huh?”

  Bob smiled, looked about. “Sure good to be back here. You guys have no idea…”

  “I need to get home,” Cassie said.

  Bob shifted his weight against the desk. “I imagine you do.”

  “We can’t forget the star of the show.” Cassie said as she slipped inside the cabin to collect Tiger. Her cat lay sleeping in the middle of Bob’s bed as though he’d lived there all his life. It always intrigued her how cats could do this.

  “Coming with us Bruce?” Bob asked as he and Cassie walked towards the parking lot.

  “Aw, why not?”

  They drove through the night and Bob dropped Cassie off at her car at the restaurant. “I will follow you back just to make sure you are okay.”

  “Thanks.” She stepped out of Bob’s truck. “Been a helluva night.”

  “Major,” Bruce agreed.

  “Get some sleep,” Bob told her.

  Eventually Cassie pulled into Hayworth’s drive and waved to them. She carried Ti
ger with her and softly set him inside the main door.

  “You’re free to go, Tiger. Mission accomplished.”

  The cat stalked directly to the kitchen and meowed. He was hungry.

  As Cassie pulled out some food for him, she relaxed. For the first time in a long time she felt oddly hopeful. Everything would work out. Life had returned to normal again—sort of.

  47

  Hayworth

  The next morning, Cassie woke around nine. Before she moved, she swiveled her eyes around the room. She was home. Really home. It was late. Her mother had already gotten Caleb off to school. She went downstairs and found her mother cleaning the kitchen.

  “Cassie! I’m so glad you’re okay,” her mother began. “My lands, what happened?” She grabbed Cassie by the upper arms and examined her face closely.

  “You’re not hung over are you?”

  “No, ma’am,” Cassie responded. She put on a sheepish face. “I got carried away.” She looked at Josh who sprawled in the living room not paying any attention to her.

  “Good morning, sunshine,” she called out to her son.

  He looked up once, smiled, and then went back to watching TV.

  “So much for all that,” she commented. “No, mother, I’m not hung over. It’s a long story but nothing bad happened, okay?”

  “Whenever you end a sentence with ‘okay’ I know better. But I won’t press. Just a big date, huh?”

  “Yes,” Cassie said. She made a cup of coffee and sat down. “This tastes great.”

  “I almost got your ex involved,” Hayworth admitted.

  “I’m glad you didn’t. There’s enough catting around with him and his lovely...” she stopped before going on because she didn’t want to have the kids hear what she would say next.

  Hayworth stopped wiping out the sink. “That’s another thing, why did you take Tiger?”

  “My date wanted to see him,” Cassie fibbed. “Said he was a cat lover.”

  “I’m sure Tiger could have done without all that.”

  “Yes, it turned into an adventure for him too.”

  “Listen up dear, I’ve got a firm offer on the house.”

  “That’s great, mom.”

  “You don’t have to be out immediately. It’ll take time for the closing and all.” Her mother gave an extra polish to the sink. “You need to figure out what’s next for you and the boys.”

  “An apartment, I suppose.”

  “No yard?”

  “Mother, I can’t deal with all that now.”

  “You will have to think about the boys.”

  “They’ll be away this summer, remember? It’ll give me time.”

  Hayworth held up a cooking spoon as though she had a brilliant idea. “Strategic thinking, my dear! Let the grandparents fill in the blanks.”

  “Sort of.” Cassie stirred her coffee for a moment. “You didn’t get the boys all worried about me, did you?”

  “No, I told them you’d met with a friend from high school and were out visiting.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Just don’t do that ever again. Promise?”

  “Promise.” Cassie looked at her mother over her cup as she sipped her coffee. Her eyes grew big to show how emphatic she was.

  Here we are, she thought. I’m lying to mama; she’s lying to my boys. Just little white lies. We make a fine duo. Then she looked about the room and through the archway at her son. Whatever it takes, she reminded herself. “I’ll do whatever it takes to get happy and make them happy and proud of me.”

  A wave of exhaustion hit her. “Mom? I’m exhausted. This coffee isn’t doing it for me. They will dock me for not showing up at work last night. I better go get more sleep.”

  “That’s right. I was so worried about you I totally forgot,” Hayworth admitted.

  “Nothing you could do. I’ll take my lumps. I’ll get some points for missing work, that’s for sure.”

  “Points?” Hayworth looked confused.

  “Like detention points,” Cassie explained. She turned to leave the kitchen.

  “One more thing. Why did that man have your cat by your sister’s?”

  “Oh, that. That was nothing. I was trying to show him where Catherine lived and his truck was too big to get down her street. I had walked to the other side to see if that other way would be easier. You need to tell my niece not to be shooting obscene hand gestures to strangers, mom!”

  “She thought Tiger was being kidnapped.”

  Cassie sighed. “He wasn’t. He’s here now. Love you, mom. Get me up by one-thirty if you could.”

  Hayworth watched her daughter walk up the stairs. Those two girls of hers would miss her once she moved. She went out on the back porch to call Frank. He expected her to fly up that weekend so they could complete their wedding plans. She already had visions of them cuddling around the fireplace or sitting on his deck watching a deep violet mountain sky.

  When the next horseback riding lesson came up, Cassie felt eager to see Bob. Since they’d already been through so much that she considered him familiar to her. When he asked her to lunch this time, she wanted to go. Ralph and Susan had made it to collect Caleb and Josh, so she told her sons good bye and to be good. Ralph looked rested for once. His new vet was working out.

  Bob greeted Ralph with a measure of respect. Previously that week he’d collected his mare and foal from the clinic. She was mending nicely. In a way it was good they would not ride her for quite a while so she’d have ample time to heal from the massive surgery—all 110 stitches worth.

  “Lunch?” he said, looking at her with a touch of bemusement,

  “Let me help you with some work around here,” she told him. “You said have to handle it mostly yourself on the weekends.”

  “You got it.” He led the last of the school horses to an outdoor paddock and hung their halters and leads near the gate.

  They waited until the last car had driven off the property, then sat as if in tacit agreement on his front porch.

  “Bob, how did we do it?” Cassie began.

  “I don’t know. Bruce and I tried to piece it all together later. Man, if Lafayette only knew what they have going on underground, they’d just freak out!” He clapped his hands once to emphasize his sentence. Cassie jumped. Bob put a reassuring hand on her leg.

  “Okay. The horses come first.” He jumped up. It was just past noon.

  “Kind of nice to have your weekends, isn’t it?” he asked as he drove them into town after they‘d gotten the stalls in order.

  “My boys. I love them so much but yes, they require a lot.” She rolled down the window, let the air toss hair around as she held up most off of the back of her neck. He enjoyed seeing her like this—with both of them tired but happy after doing for the horses. She seemed to like it as much as he did.

  “Bob, I have a question for you that’s been nagging me,” Cassie said.

  “What’s that?”

  “Why were you calling me ‘Timmie’ when I first met you at that dressage show? Who is Timmie?”

  “I knew this would come up,” he said. “Can we save it for after lunch?”

  “Is it upsetting?” she asked.

  “Let’s just say it opens up a whole new avenue.”

  48

  Zoo Craziness

  At the restaurant Cassie set down her mammoth cup of iced tea on the polyurethene-coated table. She liked the thickness of the layers that encased a variety of coasters from all over the world because it made the table top feel smooth and warm.

  “Pretty much a fern bar kind of place, eh?” Bob asked, hooking both of his arms around the back of his chair.

  “You said you’d explain…” she prodded.

  “Not here, Cassie. Let’s relax. Take a load off.”

  She viewed him suspiciously, then turned away and watched a couple walk a dog past on the sidewalk.

  “I always hate it when I see that,” Bob said as he observed the couple.

  “Hate what?”<
br />
  “People letting their dogs lead them. It’s bad training,” he said.

  She smiled sheepishly. “We’re all just human I guess.”

  “Yes and no,” he replied sharply. “That’s flat out laziness and ignorance. No dog living in a natural setting would allow for that…at least not without some pecking order being established first.”

  Cassie took in his words. “Not everybody is a trainer like you are. I understand what you’re getting at. I suppose you think me and most parents are bad with our kids.”

  He threw back his head and laughed. Finally he was relaxing. She hadn’t seen him laugh like that since the night of the library.

  “Oh no. Parents, kids? Now there you’re getting into some real complex stuff.” He tipped forward in his chair, moved his elbows to the table, leaned in towards her. “I think you’re a real fine parent. Even your ex. He’s good too. Most folks are. They’re trying. It’s the intention.”

  “Aren’t we being quite the philosopher now?” She lit up, her eyes matching his.

  He kissed both her hands. “I sure would like to make you a parent again, but we aren’t there yet, are we?”

  “Wow!” She pulled away but stopped. “I wasn’t expecting all that.”

  “C’mon, I’m joking. Let’s get out of here. I have some explaining to do.”

  Cassie looked at him, opened her mouth, then shut it.

  “We don’t have to go back to the farm,” he said. “There’s the park, the mall, the campus, the zoo, the library…”

  “Not the library.”

  “I got that.” He pulled out of the parking lot. “I say the park, then. There're ducks down there. They’re always fun to watch.”